


Portrait Series

by queenbookwench



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Angst, Art, Drawing, Experimental Style, F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Implied Violence, Post-Series, Pre-Series, Recovery, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 19:57:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6821869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbookwench/pseuds/queenbookwench
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From art teacher to medical examiner's intern--a speculative, experimental character study of Vickie Dutton from Season One to Season Five and beyond.</p><p>Note: Assumes all but the last few minutes of the finale happened.  And then other things happened, but that is another story (one I may write someday).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Portrait Series

Before: (She has pretty close to the ideal life. She loves college, even if it’s just UM-Camden, loves her weekend job teaching at the Art Students’ League studio downtown, loves, loves, Jimmy and they’re engaged, he bought a ring, they’re getting _married_.

She has her dad, and she’ll never understand her school friends who complain about their parents when he couldn’t be more proud, more supportive. Her art’s going well; she feels energized. Inspired.

Of course, everything’s not perfect. There’s always the gnawing worry about money--money for school, money for the wedding--and Captain Richards is an _asshole_. She doesn’t like that they crew for him so much, but there’s money again--he pays well and they can’t be foolish enough to turn that down.)

After: (Things with Jimmy don’t last. They started to unravel the day his mouth was erased, and they try to come back from it, but he’s just too freaked out by what she can do. By _her_. She tries to ignore the uncomfortably honest voice in the back of her head that says she should feel worse about this than she does.

She has to quit her job, and that--that hurts. She loves teaching, but she has to be so hyper-aware during class, so careful not to draw examples she shouldn’t, that it takes the fun and spontaneity of it from her.

Officer Parker-- _call me Audrey_ \--doesn’t tell her where her drawings are now, and she agrees that it’s probably for the best. Audrey does, however, bring back a list, written on notepad paper in blue ink--an inventory of every person or place Vickie’s ever drawn. She lets out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. Art isn’t lost to her, not completely.)

Later: (She has an idea--Old Vickie would have been too squeamish for it, but New Vickie is determined. The ME is an older woman with a crooked smile who looks like a smoker. Vickie’s voice only shakes a little when she says _I’m here about the intern position._

No, she doesn’t have any medical background, but she’s taken two semesters of anatomical drawing. She can handle dead bodies. After awhile, she realizes she can draw them--faces and hands, but also internal organs--she can do this and cause no harm. She starts to wonder about the possibilities--could she close a wound by drawing an injured person with stitches? She debates changing her major; art is closed to her right now, but maybe it won’t be so long until the Troubles are over. She’s heard rumors of a _cycle_.)

Later: (She’s grown fond of Gloria--she barks orders, and calls Vickie “Intern” instead of her name 95% percent of the time, but she doesn’t treat her like she’s fragile (as her father sometimes does) or like she’s dangerous (the way Jimmy did). Gloria’s step-son Ben is sweet, and his wife’s lovely; they have an adorable baby. Vickie prods a little at the wound of Jimmy, and is surprised to find the sting mostly gone. This is her life and she likes it.

One day Gloria comes into the office looking haggard, like she hasn’t slept in days. Her shirt is inside-out beneath her scrubs and she tosses back coffee like it’s the elixir of life itself. She isn’t prepared for Gloria in tears, is even less prepared for the story of a baby losing both parents in one day, of a terrifying person (being? She isn’t sure what the right word is) with the power to activate Troubles. Finds herself saying, _I know it’s not much, but if you ever need someone to watch Aaron, I’m happy to do it_. )

Later: (She’s always happy to help Audrey. So why does she feel this--this _crawling_ up and down her spine? Something isn’t right and it’s terrifying.

It feels good that Detective Wuornos--Nathan--trusts her to ride along, but she’s frantic when her clumsiness almost ruins everything.

When that tree limb falls on Creepy Not-Audrey, she feels _powerful._ )

Later: (After the Troubles end, she’s grateful, she is, but she also feels weirdly hollowed-out inside. Gloria asks, _You gonna quit on me, Intern?_ and she says no, she’ll stay--at least for now. Pretty soon, they won’t be busy enough to need an intern in the medical examiner’s office--they may not even need a full-time medical examiner.

She moves in with Gloria for a while; her dad’s place was damaged in all the disasters, and Gloria has the space. Surprisingly, Nathan moves in, too; he’s unable to face his little yellow house, and it’s as well. He shouldn’t be left alone.

She watches him as he drifts unanchored through the days, except for those periods of laser-focused attention when he walks the streets with Dwight or the rest of the police station crew. He sits in the rocking chair on Gloria’s back porch, holding Aaron and rocking back and forth, sometimes for hours. She watches him weep in utter, eerie silence.

She starts to sketch again.)

Later: (She meets Amy Potter while sketching at the end of the docks. Amy’s taking photos of the deckhands going about their business.

Someone else understands what it means to lose this and find it again.

She can’t pinpoint exactly when artist dates become date-dates, but when Amy does a shoot with her at the ruins of the old lighthouse, then leans in for a kiss...well, then she knows for sure.

That kiss makes Vickie feel young, inexperienced. It’s been so long since she felt that way. She kisses back.

They document the rebuilding of Haven together. _So many people just want to forget_ , Amy says. But I don’t ever want to doubt that all of this was real.

Amy tells Vickie about Morgan, about how he became a person she couldn’t recognize, a murderer. She says, _I’m still so, so angry. I should feel terrible about leaving him alone to die, but I don’t._

Vickie understands, she does, but sometimes Amy’s moral certainty is exhausting. She feels about a million years older and more tired.

They argue, sometimes fiercely, and both learn that it doesn’t have to be the end of everything.

They take over a damaged, abandoned storefront and create a studio together; Nathan and Bill McShaw help them renovate, and Nathan stays on, claiming some space for his own.

Vickie makes sure that the studio contains an extra-long couch and that Nathan rests on it when he needs to. With Audrey and Duke returned, he’s become less frail and more present, but is still prone to overwhelm.)

Now: (Vickie paints the streetscape outside and titles it _The Beginning_ )

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Jadzibelle, Serendipityxxi, and YumeArashi for the feedback; the idea about the potential uses of Vickie's Trouble was originally Serendipity's.


End file.
